Hero? That's a Matter of Opinion
by iisAnonymousperson
Summary: "What is your name?" - "Avenger" - "That's not a name" - "It's mine." - "Do you want be an Avenger?" - "Why not?" - "Great. You need a name for the public to call you." - "I already told you, Avenger. If you don't like that it could also be Destroyer." - "What is your real name?" - "Perseus. But if you call me that, I'll have to kill you. Call me Percy. Percy Jackson."
1. Prologue

"What is your name?"

"Avenger."

"That's not a name."

"It's mine."

"Fine. What are you?"

"Please be more specific."

"Mutant, god, mortal, what?"

"Mortal."

"Where did you learn to fight?"

"Long Island."

"There are no places that teach your style on Long Island."

"Yes, there is, you just don't know about it."

"Mom?"

"Home."

"Dad?'"

"Lost at sea."

"Step-dad?"

"Home"

"Siblings?"

"Half-brother, dad's side."

"Other family."

"Two uncles – dad's side –, five cousins, one is dead though."

He thought for a minute.

"One uncle on mom's side, never met him though, don't even know his name."

"Girlfriend?"

"San Francisco"

"Pets?"

"Two, a large dog, and a black stallion."

"Do you want be an Avenger?"

"What's in it for me?"

"Whatever you need."

"Why not?"

"Great. You need a name for the public to call you."

"I already told you, Avenger."

He paused.

"But if you don't like that it could also be Destroyer."

"What is your real name?"

"Perseus. It means Avenger or Destroyer. But if you call me that, I'll have to kill you. Call me Percy. Percy Jackson."

 **I've been wanting to do this for a while. Comment if you want me to continue.**


	2. Chapter 1

I slashed through another one of the grey skinned monsters. If they weren't trying to destroy New York, I might be tempted to call them badass, but unfortunately, they were trying to destroy New York.

I saw another one of those strange colorful people, but I didn't comment. They seemed to be dealing major damage to the monsters so I didn't bother. The monsters seemed to be coming from some portal type thing above the city. It was black and seemed to be glittering with were those stars?

So I was fighting aliens. Not the craziest thing to happen to me.

The battle was a blur. I remember random details, like one of the aliens nearly got a civilian – was that Nancy Bobofit? – And a crazy black-haired guy on top of that one tower – I couldn't read the name.

I don't know what made me look up when I did, but what I saw made me gasp. The robot was carrying something up into the portal. Time seemed to stop, then speed up at random intervals. The largest ship blew up right as it was coming out. The portal started to close, but the robot still hadn't come out. I wasn't sure if there was a person in there or what, but I didn't take any chances. Propelling myself up, I flew into the portal (using water, of course). I had some of the water I was standing on surround me in a thin coat so I wouldn't die.

I directed the water to take me over to the bot and flew back through the portal. Once through, I let go of him, knowing one of his teammates would get him. I flew away before they could see me.

I found out that there was, in fact, a person in the robot and that his name was Tony Stark. He was owner of blah blah. I tuned out after the name. I was thinking about my parents. A building collapsed on them during the invasion. Luckily, they didn't die. Mom had a broken collar bone, arm and some ribs. Paul didn't have any broken bones but some rubble cracked his skull. He was expected to come out of the coma somewhere between a few months to a few years.

Time flew by. Before I knew it, both Mom and Paul were out of the hospital. Mom had to take it easy, but she didn't do anything that hard in everyday life. I cooked because she couldn't really move her arm. Paul went back to teaching at Goode, and was often home late. Life was sort of normal. It felt weird to not be at camp, but I wanted to be sure my parents were fine.

As the months flew by, I fell into a routine. The nightmares from Tartarus – which were already fading, thanks to Annabeth and Mom – completely went away. I went to school every day where I got to see everyone from camp, who transferred to be closer in case of an attack. Also they all love my mom. Even Rachel transferred. Her reasoning was 'I said I'd go to Clarion's in the fall. I didn't say I'd return the next year.'

I was walking out of school with Annabeth, Rachel and Clarisse. Clarisse was being her usual self, but Annabeth and Rachel had a project coming up. I felt like we were being watched, and from the concealed tenseness of the others, I could tell they felt it too. But we just walking, acting like normal teenagers. Halfway down the block Jason and Leo caught up with us. "You feel that?" Leo whispered in Greek. All of us responded with similar answers. Yes. "If it's a threat, it'll make itself known. If it doesn't, ignore it." I said in Greek. So we continued on our way. I dropped the others off at their apartment – don't ask me how they got it – and went home. Paul had a quiz and was at school grading them so I cooked. Like usual. Mom was due to go back to the hospital to get her arm checked in a few days, so she still didn't cook. She walked out of her room and sat on the couch. I handed her the plate of chicken and sat across from her. She started firing off questions – the usual – how was school? Any homework, projects? Fine, and no. I was just going through routine until she asked something that caught me off guard.

"Hey Percy, do you remember, before Gabe, when your Uncle Tony came over?" I was about to answer "No and who's Tony?" when a memory surfaced. I couldn't have been older than five, but it was so clear. I was running around Central Park, scurrying up trees – probably wasn't supposed to – hiding from a man. It changed; Mom was explaining that he wasn't really my uncle. He was a childhood friend; helped her get over her parents' death and deal with her uncle. Even though they weren't related, they were closer than siblings. He started to come over less after Mom married Gabe. The last time I saw what when I was eleven. All of the memories were surprisingly clear, except for one. I couldn't remember his face. It was always an indistinct blur.

"Yeah, sort of. I can't remember his face though. Why did I only just now remember?" Mom blew out air. "Sorry, I just haven't seen him for a while and wanted to make sure you remembered his face. I'll explain later, when I have more details."

I tried to smile, but I had a bad feeling; it had something to do with this 'Uncle' Tony and the people watching me.

I was in the cemetery, several weeks later, when I sensed the people. Not many had died; Dakota, Pollux, a few others. I was thinking about what I did to deserve their loyalty but I couldn't figure it out. Four people had entered my radar, two from the north, one from the east, another from the south west. The first two were just walking along, but the other two were hiding in the trees so it was obvious that they weren't here to visit the dead. Two more came within range; they were overhead.

I turned and face the pair. My eyebrows shot up in amusement. "The Avengers." The one on the left looked shocked at my reaction. He was muscled and had blond hair; Steve Rogers, I assumed. The other looked a little surprised, but more relieved than anything else. He had dark brown hair and glasses; he looked like any normal person. I decided he was Banner; the Hulk.

The two in the trees were probably Black Widow, and Hawkeye. That left Thor and Iron Man; Tony Stark, the man I saved.

Banner spoke up, "We need you to come with us." I immediately tensed up. Banner seemed to notice. "Relax, we just need some information." I nodded warily. The other four came out. Without waiting for me they turned and walked away. I shrugged and followed them.

I rolled my eyes. An interrogation room? Really? How cliché. I sat on the metal chair provided. Nothing happened. I started to get restless, but held it in. After another amount of time, I decided to do something, something that wouldn't hint that I have ADHD. Looking around, I found a camera.

I waved at it.

Nothing.

I made faces.

Nothing.

I got up and put my face in it.

Nothing.

I yelled at whoever was watching me, giving them full view of my throat.

Noth – The door banged open. A man with an eyepatch walked in. "Took you long enough." I said. He glared; a small puppy glare compared to what I'd seen. I smiled in amusement, again. He seemed shocked, but got over it. "This is an interrogation." He stated. "Really? I thought I won a free trip to Hawaii! Now I have to tell mom that the honeymoon is canceled." I said sarcastically. His jaw clenched. Point: me.

He sat down, choosing to ignore my response.

"What is your name?" He started.

Should I tell him? I decided to be vague. "Avenger" It wasn't a lie, Perseus means Avenger.

"That's not a name." Oh this is going to be fun.

"It's mine." I glared, but not enough to seem inhuman.

"Fine. What are you?" Huh? What kind of question is that?

"Please be more specific." I requested.

"Mutant, god, mortal, what?"

"Mortal." Demigods are technically mortal. Right?

"Where did you learn to fight?"

"Long Island." Not a lie, just not the full truth.

"There are no places that teach your style on Long Island."

"Yes, there is, you just don't know about it."

"Mom?"

"Home."

"Dad?"

"Lost at sea before I was born."

"Step dad?"

I shrugged. "Home."

"Siblings?"

"Half-brother, dad's side."

"Other family?"

"Two uncles – dad's side –, five cousins, one is dead though."

I thought for a minute. Would 'Uncle' Tony count? I decided to act clueless. "One uncle on mom's side, never met him though, don't even know his name."

"Girlfriend?"

"San Francisco."

"Pets?"

"Two, a large dog, and a black stallion." Technically, Mrs. O'Leary is a dog, and Blackjack is a stallion, just with wings.

"Where were you during the invasion?"

"Depends. Most of the time I was fighting the aliens, but I think you already knew that."

Pirate, as I dubbed him, nodded. "You match the description of a young man that Stark keeps talking about."

Oh! "Yeah, I wasn't sure if he was conscious or not when I got out of the portal."

"So he wasn't hallucinating." Pirate said.

"Nope." I said, popping the 'P'.

He sighed as if he was trying make a decision.

"Do you want be an Avenger?"

Random. I thought about it. "What's in it for me?"

"Whatever you need." He answered.

"Why not?"

"Great. You need a name for the public to call you."

"I already told you, Avenger. If you don't like that it could also be destroyer."

"What is your real name?"

"Perseus. But if you call me that, I'll have to kill you. Call me Percy. Percy Jackson."

He seemed angry at the last part, but just got up and walked away. "I will send in the team to test you." He said right before exiting.

I waited maybe ten minutes. Black Widow entered. "My name is Natalie. I-"

"No it's not. You're a spy, you wouldn't just give your name that easily." I interrupted her. She looked shocked and pleased if that's possible. "Correct, it's Natasha." I didn't sense any lies. She continued: "I just needed to see if you could detect lies. So…" She seemed at a loss of what to do with me fishing out her lie so easily.

"Just send the next person in." I suggested. She huffed and left. The next person was Stark. He seemed excited to see me. "I never got thank you for saving me." He said. I shrugged. "You seemed to be dealing major damage to the army." I said, but made it so he could tell it wasn't just that. He grinned.

"So since I am good with computers, I will be testing your hacking and coding skills. What do you want to do first?"

"Hacking." I said, grinning evilly.

He set a timer and we both got on the computer. Two minutes later, I was reading a file off the screen.

"Tony Stark

Age: 41 years.

DOB: May 29, 1970…"

Tony was gaping at the end of it. "That – That's my SHEILD file." He said in awe. I shrugged. "My friend Leo taught me to hack. He was a mechanic whiz, but so much more too. He built a giant flying warship and sailed to Greece on it." I said. I probably shouldn't have mentioned The Argo II but oh well.

"A giant flying…" He trailed off. Stark walked out in a trance.

The rest of the tests went similarly. Everyone took the skill they were best at and I had to try and beat them. I won everything. Then Banner came in.

"I won't be testing you, but rather giving you a check-up." I stiffened then relaxed. He went through the expected motions. Then came the time for the heart beat and breathing stuff. I'm not a doctor, don't judge. "I'm going to have to ask you to take off your shirt, Percy." Banner said. Breathe in, breathe out. Make them see what they're expecting to see Hazel's voice rang in my head. I tried to do what she said. No scars, just the body of a man who can fight.

I took off my shirt. Nothing. It worked. We went through the motions. Eventually he left. Natasha came back into the room, glared at me, then left. I followed her, seeing as I had nothing else to do. I eventually we came to an elevator. I eyed it warily but got on. I'm not afraid of elevators, I just don't like them ever since the Doors of Death.

Natasha pushed the 'Party Deck!' button. Why it was called the party deck and not just floor '_', I don't know. The ride seemed to last hours, but it was probably only a minute long. The first thing I saw was Tony Stark holding out a pizza.

"Welcome to the Team!"


	3. Chapter 2

I had a nightmare that night. It wasn't that bad compared to some nightmares I'd had in the past, but it could have been better too. I was standing at the edge of a drop off. I felt like I was being sucked in. A voice spoke: "I am coming, Perseus. You will not escape me. I will reign, and I will keep you alive to watch all you've fought for go down in flames." I couldn't tell if it was male or female, and I didn't get a chance to look into it further. I was whisked away, winds buffeting me like in a hurricane. Next thing I knew, there was Nico, bloodied and beaten. He was chained to a wall, and his wrists bled. Not like a little trickle, or even a few little rivers. No, it was so bad Nico had passed out from blood loss. A door opened behind me, and in came a figure. It stood over my little cousin. The figure snapped its fingers, and a child ran in. She cleaned Nico up, the human way. The figure finally spoke – the same voice as the thing that had just taunted me. "Why do you not use nectar?"

The girl flinched. "We are out of the godly food and drink, Master." Her voice was barely a whisper. The figure growled and raised a hand. The child flinched again, this time accompanied by a whimper. "Why have I not been informed, child?"

She shook a little while answering. "You ordered us to remain in our quarters and not bother you. We sent someone to tell you, but I suppose they were not fast enough."

The figure growled again, the backhanded the girl. She stumbled back several feet, giving a cry that surprised me. Such a young girl, yet she was very quiet. The sound though, however small, woke Nico. He saw the girl stumble, and grabbed her. He pulled her into himself, covering her with his body. The figure roared in anger, before grabbing something off the wall. He flicked his wrist, and a line of red appeared on Nico's back. Several whips later, the person left. Nico unfurled himself to find a sobbing child.

"How old are you?" He asked, gently. She sniffed a little. "F- Four." Nico smiled at her. "What's your name?"

"Bi- Bianca." She whispered. Nico's smile stuttered a little before coming back. "My name is Nico. I'm fourteen."

Bianca sniffled again. "Why did you help me?" Nico smiled. "You remind me of someone. Her name was Bianca too."

She looked up at Nico, then smiled. Bianca curled up in his lap and fell asleep. Nico looked right at me, and then I was whisked away again.

Annabeth was in an alley, cornered by a gaggle of monsters. There was dust in her hair and on the ground. The sword Damasen gave her was in her right hand, and a dagger in her left. "Let us kill you now. It's much better that the fate our master would give you. Much more merciful." An empousa cooed. Annabeth spit at her. The hellhounds lunged. Then I woke up.

I checked the time. It was only two in the morning. Groaning, I rolled out of bed. "Do you need anything, sir?" A voice asked. I hadn't forgotten JARVIS. "Is there a pool?" I asked him. Him? It? Whatever.

I ended up spending three hours under water, thinking about what my dreams meant. I decided to get in contact with the gods as soon as possible; but first, I prayed to my dad. I figure if anyone could get Zeus to listen, it was him. By the time I was ready to face everyone, it was five in the morning. The only one up was Steve. I grabbed some coffee before deciding to scare him. I got as close as possible before whispering "Sup Steve?" He jumped a foot in the air. "What are you doing up?" He asked. I shrugged. "I had a nightmare; been up for hours."

"Oh." He seemed to be at a loss for what to say. "Do you want to come with me? Just going out on a morning jog."

I shook my head. "Nah. I barely got any sleep. I think I'll just be lazy today." I said. Steve shrugged. "Alright."

I ended up making breakfast for everyone out of sheer boredom. Everyone ended up eating in what qualified as a living room, watching Tony and Natasha arm wrestle. It was funny when Tony kept losing but refused to back down. After Tony finally admitted defeat though, it got boring.

Then the god appeared. I was staring off into space, so I didn't notice him until Tony had a freak-out. At his cry of alarm, I tuned back in. There he was, in all his (practically nonexistent) glory. There were multiple weapons aimed at him. I stared at the offending weapons while their users stared back. "Percy," Tony said slowly. "There is a stranger sitting next to you." I raised an eyebrow, almost as if saying, _and?_ Tony just stared at me. I ended up ignoring them and speaking for myself. I was vaguely aware of the others asking his questions, but I simply said "Sup Dad?"

 ** _A big big big thank you to everyone who commented about my formatting! Thank you so much. I don't think I would have noticed otherwise._**


	4. Chapter 3

That shut them up pretty quickly. "You called?" Poseidon says in answer. I nodded. "Did you have to be so dramatic? I swear, it's like you're turning into Zeus!"

"Can you tell your friends to back down?" Poseidon ignored the question.

I blinked, just noticing the fact that the weapons hadn't moved. "Guys."

Everyone but Tony puts their weapons away. "Percy!" He whined. I just gave Tony a blank stare. Two minutes later, he was still going at it – until, that is, the tower shook. A few seconds later, Thor walked into the room. Upon seeing me and Poseidon, he dropped into a bow. "My lords."

I frowned. "Lord-zzz?"

After that was sorted out (it involved a lot of face-palming on my part), I told dad about my dream.

"I see. I will speak to my brother about this." Poseidon said as he stood. "Thor," then the sea god vanishes into mist. The other Avengers turned to me for an explanation.

"I don't suppose there's a way out of this?" I asked nervously. Natasha shook her head.

So that took a while. After explaining the gods, I had to explain the Mist, and after that, they made me explain all of my personal achievements.

"And you wonder why Thor called you a Lord." Natasha said, shaking her head as if amused.

I blushed, not liking the praise… it felt like they're congratulating me for killing my friends. But I pushed on anyway. "Any questions?" I asked.

Everyone shook their heads no, except Natasha. "Why doesn't Clint seem to be surprised?"

So that story lasted another two or three hours. The basic gist of it was that when Clint was researching mind-control, he stumbled upon the gods. They allowed him to live as long as he swore on the River Styx not to reveal the godly world to anyone.

Also, Clint was clear-sighted. Natasha decided that that particular fact explained a few unexplainable things.

It wasn't until Thor, of all people, yawned, that we decided to go to bed. I flopped into my bed and was immediately pulled into a dream.

At first, it just seemed like a regular demigod dream and that made me want to scream "strings of profanity!" like that one teacher used to always do when her computer broke. Then I noticed the god and realized that this isn't your average demigod dream.

The god was sitting in a white room, looking kind of weird. I'm not exactly sure what I mean by that, but it's the best choice of words to fit the situation. His black hair was messy – like it was gelled back maybe a week ago and the guy had yet to take a shower and get it out. Dull eyes peered at me, flickering between green and blue before settling on green. I got a strange sense of Deja-vu. The eyes reminded me of Luke. The gods' face was thin and gaunt, his skin pale. Despite the frail condition he appeared to be in, the gods' aura was as strong as any other.

"Hmm…" The god hummed. "You're the reason for the excited… _vibes_ Thor is giving off."

"Vibes? What?" I asked.

"Ah yes." The god said. "I must apologize for my… condition. I am Loki."

Loki circled me like a shark. "I am bored." He finally said. "I have tried things, but they weren't very fun. Keeping tags on Thor became my day to day life. And finally, something worthwhile happens."

I gave him a blank stare. "What do you want me to do?"

"Tell me about yourself. The stories on Asgard are boring."

What Loki says spark something in me. I had heard about Loki, and his magical prowess. "A deal, Loki. I will tell you about my life if you help me locate my cousin."

And so, I spent several more hours talking about myself.

As it turned out, Nico may not have even be on Earth, if Loki's prediction was correct. Loki thinks that Nico was taken by an Earthen deity and handed over to the assholes who kept Loki captured. And that led to Loki telling me about what happened after he fell into the void.

"Wow"

"Yeah"

"And you say Nico is there right now?"

"Quite possibly."

"My life sucks."

"Yes, it does seem to."

"Why can't we just get a break?"

Loki chuckled. "You would not be the Great Hero of Midgard if you did."

Somehow, I believed him.

"So who was it that took Nico in the first place?" I wondered aloud. Loki looked startled by the question but seemed to decide it was a good one.

"Is there anyone who doesn't particularly like him? Any enemies?"

Percy sighed, "To many. He fought like a demon in the Titan War, and in the Giant War, he was kidnapped by giants and held prisoner. He was in Tartarus, when they captured him, searching for the Doors of Death. Umm…. Maybe Midas? But he's a ghost. But Nico did tick him off… took his title of Ghost King, banished him to the Underworld, that kind of schiz."

Loki sighed.

"And then there's the fact that it could be an attempt to get ahold of me because of how I was the hero of the prophecy or something. So it could be that they don't even care about Nico."

Loki face palmed. "Really?

We never got much closer to an answer after that. It hadn't really hit me how fucked I was.

"Dad?" I called the next day. Poseidon turned around to find the iris-message. "Percy? What's wrong?" He asks.

"Well, I talked to someone last night. He helped figure out what was up with Nico."

Poseidon raised an eyebrow. "What's that?"

"He thinks…" I faltered, "He thinks that Nico was captured by a deity here on Earth and then handed over to this Thanos guy. They call him the Mad Titan. He's impossible to escape, and he controlled Loki and was the mastermind behind the whole attack on New York. Dad, if Nico is in this guy's hands…" I didn't know how to feel. If Nico was captured, then we were up against some really powerful enemies. Nico was strong, really strong. He could take out an entire army by himself. But he was also still healing from toting the Athena Parthenos around the world.

"Dad, Nico's only fourteen. It's only been a year since the wars. He's still weak, never mind the fact that he can summon an army. He's still weak." I was scared. Yeah, the Big Three kids unlocked some epic abilities during the war, but we are still only mortal.

"Percy," Poseidon spoke calmly, "Relax. We will get Nico back. If your contact knows where Nico is, then we can count on him helping. He-" Poseidon didn't get to finish speaking as I hysterically interrupted him. "Dad! My contact is stuck in prison. On Asgard! We can't count on him for anything except information."

"Percy, calm down. We'll get Nico back, and if there is a war coming, we will win."

"But at what cost?" I asked. "Dad, Nico isn't just my friend, or my cousin, he's my brother. And he's fourteen. And they're probably torturing him in there and we're heading into another war and Dad, I can't lose anyone else. I can't do this. Not again."

Poseidon didn't know what to do. "Go visit your mother, Percy. I don't know what to do, but she might. You do have a nasty habit of disappearing on her."

I nodded. "Sure. Thanks Dad."

It was only after I swiped through the iris-message, that I realized I never told my mother where I am. And it's been three days now. I was in major trouble.

And Annabeth.

Oh yeah, There's no way I was leaving alive.

 ** _So I decided to just keep to past tense, since I like it. I have edited this a bit, so expect that in the future._**


	5. Info - to be removed after Infinity Wars

So I saw _Thor: Ragnarok_ last weekend and it was wonderful. I will be updating this story, but it will be slow. I want to wait for _Infinity Wars,_ which I think comes out next November, to see how far from canon I want to deviate. Some things will be relatively easy to write, though, because it doesn't interfere with the MCU so far. Expect to see Percy's point of view for the next few chapters, then at some point I will change it to one of the Avengers' perspective, or maybe Loki's.

-iisAnonymousperson


	6. Chapter 4

I stood outside Annabeth's door, figuring that maybe she wouldn't kill me immediately. She'd at least listen to my story, then kill me.

It took a good few hours and smack across the face, but I eventually left alive, Annabeth at my side. The talk with my mom would be a lot harder.

Thankfully, she let me go without many problems, after I explained that I had been preoccupied with Nico problems and let me say hello to Paul before heading back to the Avengers.

With the exception of the occasion mission or battle, I didn't have much to do. I practiced, ate, slept and went to school when I could. It was at night that the real progress was being made.

And by that, I mean nothing. Two months after I joined the Avengers, Tony had gone and had a problem with some terrorists, but that was the only news. I didn't have any clues as to where Nico could be, and Loki, despite his superior knowledge, wasn't any better off. With no knowledge of planets other than Earth, I was lost. It hurt, terribly, to know that Nico was stuck somewhere I couldn't access, being tortured, and likely trying to protect Bianca.

The only solace was the knowledge that my dad was speaking to Odin, the king – I think – of Asgard, to try and find Nico as well.

Then my connection to Loki was cut off. That was another few months after Tony's terrorist debacle. Dad didn't have any more information, and I couldn't focus much on it since things began to pick up. At first, there was not much going on that directly involved me, but it was distracting. Steve had gone on a mission with Natasha in D.C. and came back depressed. I didn't ask what had happened, but from what I heard through talk, it didn't sound good.

And that's when things really got stressful.

Fury sent us on a mission in Europe. That was how it started. There were a couple of jokes, some HYDRA agents, a lot of fighting, but not much odd...ness. That came later. The man must have been experimented on, because there was no way any human could run that fast. He was a blur of silver, grey and tan, and he did the most damage to us.

In the end, we got out okay, but some of the suits Tony designed to protect citizens were damaged. And that somehow led to the next problem:

Ultron. The crazy metal man wanted to destroy the world and replace it with his robot people, and tried to use a city as an asteroid that would wipe out all life. We stopped him with the help of the silver man, Pietro, and his witch-sister, Wanda, but many people died, and the city was destroyed.

However, it was Ultron that led to the breakthrough with Nico. Wanda had powers that I didn't quite understand, but she could look into my mind. That helped a lot. It didn't take very long for us to understand who had taken Nico, since Clint agreed to help. Clint had been mind-controlled by Loki in the invasion, which meant he'd seen some things, including… Thanos. I don't like him. "The Mad Titan". He looked powerful. Like Atlas, or Kronos.

And for the first time in nearly a year, I got to go on a quest with demigods.

With the information Wanda and Clint got me, I went to the Olympians.

"My Lords and Ladies." I said, kneeling.

"Perseus," Zeus said. "It has been a while since you made trouble. What is the problem?"

I stood, and looking right into the eyes of the gods, I said, "There is potentially another war approaching."

The throne room broke out noise. It took them a few minutes, but eventually the gods calmed down. "How?" Athena asked.

"Well, I'm not sure how much attention you've been paying the mortals, but there have been gods from other pantheons attacking the Earth. A Norse god names Loki was… _kind-of_ mind-controlled by aliens and attacked Earth.

"Two years ago, Nico DiAngelo was taken from Earth. Loki helped me find him, however, before any significant progress could be made, we lost contact. Lord Poseidon knows this. Recently, some of the new Avengers have been training. Wanda has mind powers and she and Clint collaborated with me to find him. We did. But he's not here on Earth. He's been captured by someone. The others call him Thanos – "The Mad Titan". From what I can tell, he's just as powerful as his name suggests. I want to propose a quest, one to both save Nico and scout out Thanos, and see if he's a threat."

There was a hushed conversation (don't tell them I could hear them, but they were twenty feet tall), and then quiet. "We will accept the quest, Percy," My dad said, "But you will have to wait until a vehicle can be acquired."

I smiled. "That's fine. I'll go to camp and get a prophecy and some campers to come with me. I think I'll need a few more than three, though."

It took the gods about a month to get that vehicle. Hephaestus had upgraded it, making it practically indestructible which took another week. In the time I had to prepare, I found everyone that was willing to come, and it was a good variety of skills too. Annabeth chose to stay behind and continue her education (she was in senior year), but Leo came and he convinced Piper to come along, and Frank and Hazel followed. Clarisse offered her help, as well as Connor and Travis. Hopefully it would be enough. While I still had time, I made the journey with Malcom to the Lotus Hotel and retrieved as many of their cards as possible.

The day before I was to leave, I went to the Avengers.

"Percy!" Tony exclaimed. "Where've you been?"

I smiled. "My cousin was kidnapped. The gods are sending me on a quest, and I'm leaving tomorrow. I wanted to let you guys know; I won't be back for a while. The quest is also going to act as a scouting mission, since there is potentially another war coming."

"WHAT?"

I nodded. "Yeah. I hate it too. We're going to make sure that we're prepared."

Natasha frowned, looking concerned. "Will you be okay?"

I grinned. "Yeah, we got everyone we need to fly a ship. We'll be back as soon as possible."

There was an awkward moment of silence before I turned to leave, flashing them another smirk. "Don't worry about me, you know all the shit I've been through."

The ship was yellow and blue, with the SPQR painted in purple on one side and CHB in orange on the other. Leo walked right up to it and put his palm over the engine. When he opened his eyes, he looked positively giddy. "Oh yeah, I can fly this thing."

I nodded, "Good. Now all that's left is a prophecy."

Apollo nodded. "We'll get her here during her free period, which is in half an hour."

I smiled. The next twenty-five minutes were spent exploring the ship, which honestly was just about the best thing I'd ever seen. We all came out to wait for Rachel, and Apollo vanished a few seconds later, reappearing with the Oracle. I told her "We need a prophecy."

Rachel nodded, closing her eyes. When they opened again, they were solid green. _"_ _I am the Oracle of Delphi. Approach, Seeker, and ask."_

I took a deep breath and said "How do we save Nico and stop Thanos?"

 _"_ _Nine will journey beyond our Earth_

 _"_ _Life and death will fight for the hearth_

 _"_ _The end of time now approaches_

 _"_ _The heroes' end soon encroaches_

 _"_ _The prisoner released redeems_

 _"_ _The family torn at the seams_

 _"_ _Lives that were taken now returned_

 _"_ _The spirit of hope is rebirthed"_

I smiled. When she came back to herself, I said, "Thanks Rachel." Apollo took her back to school, while we began to talk about the prophecy.

"We only have eight people." Frank pointed out. Hazel nodded along with him. There was a long pause as we thought about what to do about that, but Leo said "Maybe we'll meet them on our way."

We began getting ready to go, but then Will Solace ran up. "Wait!" He shouted. "I want to come."

I shrugged. "You're just in time Solace."

"Alright! There's our nine!"

Leo jumped into the cockpit, grinning at the sight of the controls. "This is awesome."

A few minutes later, I sat down at a communal table, along with all the equipment I found. There were several miniature earpieces, which were probably the most important bits. We had a pad of paper as well as a map for planning, which I had laid out. But then Leo said "Hold on to your shit!" and I stuffed it all in an empty drawer. Moments later, the engine turned on and gravity got stronger.

The speaker brayed loudly. "I figured it out!" Came Leo's voice. "Give us a few minutes and we will be out of Earth's atmosphere."

There was a jolt and I fell down, grabbing the table. "Haha! Hyperspeed!" Leo shouted. "Or something like that. It's pretty cool. Let's see if I can contact anybody." The overcomm squealed and then went quiet.

I looked out the window. There was the Earth, looking just like it did in the photos from NASA. It was quickly getting smaller; a few seconds later we passed the moon. Just before we hit the asteroid belt, a portal-like thing opened up and swallowed us.

I was immediately thrown back into the wall. "Whoa!" Leo shouted. There were a few minutes where I couldn't move at all. Then the gravity lessened and I could move. I pressed an earpiece into my ear. It was much smaller than I anticipated. I made my way to the cockpit, passing one out to everyone I passed. Our ship wasn't huge, but it wasn't tiny either. I handed Leo and Piper an ear piece each and left to find Connor and Travis, the only two I hadn't passed on my way down.

"Right." Leo said. "We've left the Solar System. The gods didn't give us any money and even if they did, we don't know if it's worth anything out here. I'm hacking…. And…. I'm in. So these guys use the generic term 'units' to refer to their monies. They appear to have credit cards of a sort –" I grinned, I could use my Lotus cards. "That are different than ours but we should be able to find someone who can transfer Percy's Lotus card money into their units and put it in an account for us. This guy called "The Broker"? What the heck kind of name is that? Anyway, he specializes in antiques, it appears, and our credit card probably are antique to these guys, so at the very least, he should be able to point us in the right direction. So that means we're headed to… Xandar! What a weird name."

I grinned. "Hazel!" She turned around. "How much money is there on Earth? We need to determine how many units every dollar is worth."

Hazel shrugged. "Somewhere between sixty and seventy-five trillion US dollars."

"Great!" I flashed a smile, "Thanks. Do you know where Connor and Travis are?"

Hazel shook her head. "Alright. Thanks anyway!" I ran off, figuring that they'd probably be in the cargo hold looking for prank stuff.

I was right. After slipping them their earpieces, I turned to the next problem. We didn't have a way to contact Olympus, as far as I knew. Maybe Hazel could shadow travel back, but she didn't have nearly as much training as Nico, not to mention that neither of them had gone farther than the diameter of Earth. How would they practice?

"We're almost at Xandar!" Leo said. Maybe I'll find something on Xandar to contact the gods with. I was thrown forward as the ship suddenly decelerated, and there was Xandar. It had begun.


	7. Chapter 5

The question was: How were we going to deal with a society not from Earth, and an interstellar one at that? I had no clue. Fortunately, or unfortunately, we were approached Xandarian authority. They took us in and separated us. We didn't resist. It probably would have been a bad idea, and they could help us, so we wanted to be on their good side. As we flew in, I couldn't help but notice the destruction surrounding the city. "What happened?" I whispered to Leo.

"I don't know. Don't want to make them angry hacking either." He responded.

I nodded. Leo had the right idea. Leo opened the doors as we set down. Twenty or so armed men and women entered. One blonde lady, whose hair was done up in a twist, snapped "Who is your captain?"

There was a moment of silence, then Will hesitantly said: "Percy's the one in charge." I sighed and stepped forward. "I'm Percy."

The woman nodded and four of the men surrounded me, prodding to make me move. I went, following the woman to a room that looked like a cross between an interrogation room and an office.

"Hello, Percy." The woman said.

"Hi." I responded.

The woman looked at me critically. "This is just a precaution, Percy. Call me Commander Rael."

I smiled. "I wouldn't expect anything less, Commander, assuming I am correct that you recently fought a war or battle of some sort. My name is Percy Jackson."

Commander Rael smiled. It was cold and thin, but it was a smile nonetheless.

"Yes, Ronan, one of the Kree who didn't agree with the peace treaty, attacked us. Needless to say, we won the battle but with some significant losses."

So the Xandarians had a treaty with a society called "The Kree".

Then the questioning began. The first thing she asked was "Is Percy Jackson your full name?"

I smiled and said "Percy is short for Perseus, but I prefer Percy."

She nodded with a satisfied smile. "How many people are under your command?"

"Eight for now, possibly gaining two more soon."

Rael frowned. "What does that mean?"

I shrugged. "We came here to get supplies for a rescue mission for my cousin, and to scout and see if his kidnapper is a threat or not."

She scowled. "A threat to whom?"

I sighed, "A threat to my home planet, Earth." When she gave me a blank look, I said, "Maybe you guys call it something different. Our people have yet to make past our moon, so I doubt there are many of our species in your society. We're the exceptions, and honestly, I'm not sure where we got some of the technology we were provided with."

Rael nodded. "Well that answers that question…" She muttered, without explaining. "Who are your people?"

"Leo, Hazel, Connor, Travis, Piper, Frank, Clarisse, and Will."

"And who is who?"

"Well," I began, "There's Leo. He's the small one with brown hair and the tool belt. Hazel's the girl with the dark skin and bushy hair, Connor and Travis are the ones that look like twins. Piper has dark skin but it's lighter than Hazel's and her hair isn't bushy, Frank's got black hair and pale skin. Clarisse is the big burly girl, and Will is the tanned one with blond hair."

"Last question. How do we know you aren't working for Thanos?"

I scowled. "Thanos is the guy who kidnapped my cousin. I'm guessing, by your question about him, he is a threat."

Rael nodded. "Yes. Ronan was one of Thanos' subordinates gone rogue."

I cursed. "That's just…. Perfect. Just perfect."

She smiled sympathetically. "Yes. You will be allowed to go free, Percy, but we will be tracking you. If you try anything, you will be taken in."

I nodded. "That's fine. Probably a good idea to have someone who knows where we are at all times anyway."

Rael raised her hand. The people who took me in lead me out. "You will be directed to the guest rooms. There is another group living there until their ship is fixed. Try to get along. Some of them are stand-off-ish."

I smiled. "Thanks Commander!"

Outside the room, everyone was waiting for me with their guards. I smiled, "Well, Commander Rael has agreed to help us get what we need. Umm… She said that Thanos is most definitely a threat, so we'll have to contact Earth somehow. And we'll be staying near another group of people and to get along."

The guards looked at Rael, who nodded in agreement.

Our rooms were fairly large. Not very, but enough to hold all two of us in each. As the odd one out and the leader, I had one all to myself. Rael told us we had the wing to explore. Two doors down from Hazel and Franks' rooms were the rooms for the other group Rael told us about. We didn't know their names, but from what some of the guards said, they were a recently brought together group of convicts who warned Xandar about Ronan's attack and were subsequently pardoned of all crimes. I explored the area, finding a cafeteria as Piper chattered in my ear.

" _I miss Jason."_

"I do too, Piper, but it's only been, like, five hours."

" _Feels like longer."_

"Yeah, I know. I don't like being so far from Annabeth."

 _"_ _Hmm… yeah, maybe that's why I feel so torn up already."_

"Who you talking to?"

I yelped, turning around to find a raccoon, holding a potted stick with eyes.

 _"_ _Percy? Are you okay?"_

"I'm fine Piper. Just ran into someone. I'll talk to you later."

I stared down at the raccoon, who said, "Who's Piper? That your girlfriend?"

Sure. Talking raccoons. Not the weirdest thing I'd ever seen. "No. Piper's dating my cousin. We were lamenting the separation from our significant others."

"Sure, sure." The raccoon didn't sound like he believed me. "I'm Rocket. This is Groot." He ducked his head as he poked the stick, which giggled. Talking sticks as well. That was when I noticed the metal pieces on Rockets back.

"Name's Percy. What happened to you?"

Rocket straightened up, managing to look down on me, despite being only two-and-a-half feet tall.

"Aint nothing like me 'cept me!" He declared. I took that to mean he didn't want to talk about it.

I raised my hands. "Cool it. Didn't mean to offend you. Proudly unique. Got it."

Rocket scowled. "I am groot." Groot said.

"Groot wants to talk to Peter. Goodbye." Rocket said, and turned around and walked off.

"Right. Stand-off-ish. Try to be nicer, Percy. Have some tact."

 _"_ _Hey, Percy. Piper told you were acting weird. You okay?"_ Leo asked.

"I'm fine. I ran into two of the other group. Their names were Rocket and Groot. Groot was some kind of plant creature that Rocket carried around in a pot, and Rocket himself was a biped raccoon? But also the sort to viciously murder someone because they called him a raccoon, so… I kind of offended Rocket, so we may or may not need to fix that."

 _"_ _Percy!"_

"I know, I know. I'll apologize next time I see him."

Hazel spoke up; _"_ _Try not to say things that can be perceived as offensive, Percy. We really don't need more enemies."_

"I know Hazel. I have no tact. I just told myself that." I sighed. We were in over our heads.


	8. Chapter 6

_**Thanks to everyone who reviewed. Feel free to point out any problems. I love seeing your thoughts!**_

I was mostly back when I met Gamora. She looked angry. I assumed it was because I had offended Rocket.

"Hi." I said.

"Are you Percy?" She looked down at me. Was that a skill all of them had to learn?

"Yeah. Did I offend your friend?"

Gamora nodded. "He doesn't like talking about it. Or thinking about it. Or anything other than being treated like the rest of us."

I flinched. I hadn't meant it like that. She must have heard part of my conversation with Leo and Hazel.

"Crap. I'm sorry. I just thought it looked painful. I didn't mean for him to take it like that. I've got some experience being treated like that. My dad made a promise like seventy years before I was born that he wouldn't have any more kids and that backfired and I was hated for it for a while because I existed. Like it was my choice. He's the one who decided to have sex with my mother. I'm rambling, aren't I?"

Gamora looked at me like I had two heads. "That is very similar to what Rocket said. Why did your father promise not to have kids?"

I hesitated. "It's difficult to explain. My uncle was afraid of being overthrown, I guess, and his kids, and his brothers' kids were powerful enough to do that, so he forced them to promise never to have kids."

"So what happened when your uncle found out about you?"

I smiled. "He sent me on a suicide mission to retrieve something that had been stolen from him. I survived and he owed me, so he let me live."

Gamora shook her head. "That's insane. What planet are you from?"

"Earth; you might know it as something different. Commander Rael didn't recognize the name."

Gamora's eyes lit up when I said "Earth", and she grabbed my and dragged me off.

"So I take it you know of it."

Gamora ignored me and threw me into one of her groups rooms. Rocket and Groot were there, along with a big grey person with red markings and another man who looked like he was from Earth.

"Peter! This man says he's from Terra."

The man who looked like he was from Earth turned around. "Terrans?"

I nodded. "Yup. Hold on a minute, I need to tell my friends what you guys call Earth."

 _"Percy? Where are you?"_ Will asked.

"I'm fine Will. I met a lady – you said your name was Gamora? – and she introduced me to her group. Hazel, Frank, they call Earth "Terra"."

 _"Terra. Like Latin for Earth?"_

"Like Latin for Earth."

 _"Gods Prissy. How do we explain that?"_ Clarisse asked.

"Hades if I know, Clarisse. Probably doesn't matter in the long run. I got to go. See you later."

"Percy?" Peter asked.

"Hi. You're Peter?" Peter nodded. I turned to Rocket. "I'm sorry if I offended you earlier. I didn't mean it like that."

Rocket nodded, but he was still scowling. "I am Groot" Groot said. I smiled at Groot. "Does Groot say anything else?"

The grey guy shook his head. "Okay," I said. "What's your name?"

He grunted a little. "Drax the Destroyer."

"Awesome name, Drax. I'm just Percy."

"Percy." Peter said. I turned to him.

"Yeah?"

"Gamora explained to me what you said to her. It sounded like your dad was in his hundreds and still having kids."

I sighed. Of course he'd pick up on that.

"Umm… modern medicinal breakthroughs have extended lives?"

Peter gave me a blank look. "It is impossible for medicine to extend the human life that far in the – what? Thirty years? – that I've been gone."

I winced. It _was_ a flimsy explanation. There was nothing else I could think of, and in that moment, I made a decision.

"I never said my dad was human."

 _"Percy!"_ Frank shouted.

"What?" Peter asked.

 _"Prissy, do not say another word."_ Clarisse warned.

I ignored her.

"Percy, there isn't another species on Earth that can produce a human-like being." Peter said.

"The Greek Gods exist. So do the Romans."

That was the moment Clarisse wrapped her arms around my neck.

It appeared that Hazel got tired of waiting for me to tell her where I was, so she grabbed the nearest demigod – Clarisse – and shadow-traveled, using my shadow as a destination.

While I was fighting off an angry daughter of a war god, Hazel was doing damage control. Damage control consisted of, "I'm sorry about him. I suppose we have to tell you now. I'm Hazel. Daughter of Pluto, Roman god of the Dead, Shadows, Riches and Ruler of the Underworld. Clarisse is the one strangling Percy. She the daughter of Ares, Greek god of War and… I don't know what else. I'm Roman."

I managed to pin Clarisse's arms to her body. "My dad is Poseidon, god of the Sea, Earthshaker, Stormbringer, all that jazz."

Gamora hummed. "God – like a celestial?"

"I dunno. Maybe. What's a celestial?"

Rocket opened up a device thing. "Here's one," He said. The video that played was terrifying. A large life-form with a staff of some sort, destroying a planet. "That was ages ago. There's the head of a celestial just floating around too. Giant. There's an entire city inside its head that makes a profit from mining body fluids. Now that I think about that, its disgusting."

"Hmm…" I thought. Giant, overpowered, capable of destroying planets. Sounded like it was more than a god. Couldn't be a titan either. Well, maybe, but I'd seen titans, and that didn't look like Atlas. Or Prometheus, or any other titan I'd ever met. So then there was primordial. Of all the male primordial gods I knew, who could that be?

The one in Rockets video was a little difficult to figure out, but… "Hazel, doesn't the myth say that Kronos/Saturn cut Ouranos to pieces then scattered him?"

Hazel nodded, eyebrows furrowed in confusion before clearing. "You think the head is Ouranos?"

I shrugged. "Could be. It'd explain why his remains were never found."

"Who are you guys talking about?" Peter asked.

"Primordial gods. Hold on – can we get everyone in here?" I asked, then looked around and said, "Maybe not in here. How about the cafeteria?"

We reconvened in the cafeteria. Rocket showed the others his video, then Gamora asked me, "So, Percy, what's the verdict?"

I thought for a moment. "It's difficult. The head is a primordial god, I'm sure of it. Primordial gods tend to be huge beings, who, if you were on their skin, would look at you like a flea. It's probably Ouranos."

Clarisse, Connor, Travis and Will looked confused. "I prefer to call him by that name," I explained, "because the other pronunciation does nothing for humor."

Peter raised an eyebrow. "What's his other name?"

"Uranus." I said. Yer-ay-nes – your anus. I blamed eighth-grade boys for _that_.

Rocket snorted.

"How do you know how a primordial would see you?" Gamora asked.

"Well," I began, "I've met three – maybe four. One was Gaia – Greek for Terra. It means Earth. Our planet. She literally was the planet. I mean, she had a "mortal" form, but her legitimate body – it was the planet." I made a hand motion that I hoped got the point across. It didn't.

"The other was Tartarus. He resides inside the Earth…" I made a face as my mind conjured an image I did not need. "Annabeth – my girlfriend – and I fell into Tartarus, the place. But, as I later found out, Tartarus the place was just his legitimate body. His "mortal" form was pretty scary by itself. Tartarus is like… Hell. I don't know what you believe, but hell is like… punishment for living your life as a bad person. But it's worse. Tartarus is where the monsters go. Not even the people who live terrible lives don't get put down there.

"Then there was Nyx. The Night. She was a fifty-foot-tall woman who exuded darkness, and her realm-body was a palace. And the fourth was Akhlys. Misery. I'm not sure if she's a primordial, actually. But she made it sound like she was."

"Ahh…" Gamora said. "And these deities still live?"

I nodded. "They're immortal. In the able to heal from any injury, poison or illness and not age type of immortal."

"And you think the celestial is a primordial called Ouranos." Rocket said. His voice was devoid of sarcasm. I wondered why. He had yet to say anything not sarcastic or angry.

I nodded.

"It makes sense." Hazel said. "With all the legends and myths surrounding Ouranos' disappearance. Why he never returned, got revenge."

"What about you guys?" I asked the others.

"It… it makes sense. It does. But why don't we already know this?" Frank said.

Will replied, "Maybe the information was coveted. Maybe it was destroyed. Who knows?"

"Well," Connor said, "Is it possible _Chaos_ is a being?"

I stared at Connor. What in hades did he mean?

Travis saved him "Well, it goes that the protogenoi were born of _chaos_. But _chaos_ was a term used to describe the concept of the nothingness that existed before existence. So what if _Chaos_ actually did have a mortal form? Or at least, was a sentient being?"

Connor continued. "Along that line of thought, what if Chaos saw how immortality corrupted the protogenoi and destroyed the knowledge in hopes that they wouldn't be so horrible. I mean, you saw that video. Destroying planets?"

Clarisse nodded along. "The power in each generation died down until the gods, who, no matter how you try to argue it, aren't all powerful."

Peter was staring at us. To be fair, we were internalizing ourselves. I decided to educate him about the godly ways; as soon as we were done theorizing, of course.

"Maybe there was other knowledge too!" Piper exclaimed. I nodded. There probably was.

"Like the staff the celestial in the video had." Frank said.

I asked to see the video. Rocket replayed it a couple of times. "What is the purple thing in the center?" Leo asked.

"Oh…" Peter seemed reluctant to share, but he did. "That's an Infinity Stone. We probably aren't supposed to tell you."

"What's an Infinity Stone?" Leo asked. Peter shrugged and turned to Gamora.

She sighed. "They are stones of massive power. They were singularities that existed before existence. The stone is just a… "mortal form", to put it shortly. Thanos has been looking for them."

A lightbulb went off in my head. "Do you know what the stones represent?"

"The one in the video is the Power Stone. Thanos had the Mind Stone, and he almost got ahold of the Space Stone a while back."

I grinned. "Do you know what happened to the Space and Mind Stones?"

Gamora shook her head. "Why? Do you?"

"I think so. Earth – Terra. I've seen them. The Space Stone is cube-shaped, glows blue?"

Gamora nodded.

"The Terrans call it the Tesseract. They were experimenting with it, but decided to leave it alone after Loki's invasion."

"As for the Mind Stone; vaguely oval, yellowy-orange? That's hanging out in Vision's forehead. He's an artificial intelligence in a living body. The Stone is what keeps him in his body, I think. It also grants him some wonderful powers. It used to be in Loki's staff, but Loki isn't using it anymore, since he was under the control of Thanos at the time, who was abusing the Mind Stone."

Gamora nodded. "Why do you need to know this?"

"Well, you said that the stones were singularities before existence. Chaos was before existence. I'm thing that the stones are a part of Chaos that collectively, are Chaos. It would explain so much, to be honest."

After that, I educated them on Earthen Gods. Well, Greek and Roman gods. it took a while. I was glad I didn't go into semantics that were the other pantheons. I wasn't about to get into the insanity that was Egypt. What were they doing – possessing people? And the people just went along with it?

"That makes so much sense now!" Rocket said, the sarcasm back.

I shrugged. "What can I say? It's crazy. I covered the important stuff. Now, I think it's nearly time for bed. I am exhausted."

 _ **One review I received has me wondering: Is the prologue necessary? Would this story be better off without it?**_


	9. Chapter 7

"So you're looking for your cousin?"

I nodded. "Yeah. Thanos has him, we think, so that's going to be difficult."

"Yeah no shit." Rocket said. He glared at me. I smiled back.

"I will help you." Drax said. Really? I didn't think he's be willing after Ronan.

"Drax no." Gamora said. She turned to me and explained, "He wants to help you because he wants revenge on Thanos." She turned to Drax, "Which he will get once we have the abilities to take him down. If you rush in now, Drax, you will be killed and your wife and daughter will never be avenged."

Drax glared at Gamora. "I could still kill you."

"And here I thought we were past that." Peter mumbled.

I asked him, "What's their problem?"

Peter shrugged. "Gamora used to work for Thanos. She decided to go rogue on him, but Drax is still bitter."

"I am Groot." Groot said.

"No." Rocket responded. "We weren't bounty hunters."

"Ha ha ha… Yes, you were." Peter said. "So how old is your cousin?"

"He's four… no he's not. Shit. He disappeared when he was fourteen, but now, he's probably already sixteen, maybe even approaching seventeen, even."

Then I had an epiphany. "Holy shit I'm twenty-one."

Hazel lifted her head from her conversation with Frank. Her eyes went wide. "I'm _seventeen_." She whispered. Frank scratched his head. "Yeah? I'm nineteen? Why are we talking about our ages?"

"Most Greek demigods don't live to see their late teens." Connor said. "I'm twenty-two. I'm of drinking age! I never took advantage of that fact. I'm of drinking age and I've never had – okay that's a lie. But I've never legally had alcohol."

Will gasped, "I'm eighteen."

Peter narrowed his eyes. "You're all a bunch of kids!"

I raised an eyebrow. "Yes. Like Connor said, we don't tend to live very long."

No," Frank protested, "Roman demigods often live to meet their grandkids!"

Piper said, "But Greek demigods don't. You're used to living to be old, and I am too, and so is Leo, but Percy, Clarisse, Connor, Travis, Will, and Hazel aren't. They're not used to there being a safe place they can live out their lives. I'll bet the next generation of Greeks will probably feel the same way we do."

I nodded, "Piper's right. When we," I motioned towards everyone Piper mentioned, "arrived at camp, the oldest there was Luke. He was twenty, and then he… betrayed us, and we were forced to take action. He died like… it was like three years and a month later. Gods, it feels like it was longer, but it wasn't. The summer I turned thirteen, to the summer I turned sixteen. Luke was twenty-three."

Connor and Travis made a face halfway between a snarl and a sob.

I turned to Will and said, "You're eighteen? I thought you were Nico's age!"

Will looked affronted, "I am only one year older than him!"

Hazel turned to Peter and said, "As you can see, we don't really pay attention to our ages. I kind of did, but then Nico went missing, and he's like an older brother to be despite the fact that he's like six months younger than me. Will is Nico's boyfriend, so he wasn't paying much attention either."

Peter turned to the Clarisse, Piper, Leo and Travis. "And how old are you guys?"

Piper raised her hand and said, "Twenty." Leo nodded.

"Twenty-two," Clarisse said.

"I'm twenty-four. I think I'm the oldest here."

"That would be me." Hazel stated, staring at Travis. He tilted his head and she elaborated, "I was born in 1928."

"How is that possible?" Gamora asked. "Peter tells me it was 1980 when he left Terra, and he's only forty years old."

Hazel nodded. "I died in 1942 or something. Nico brought me back to life in 2009, I think. Maybe it was 2010; it's a little fuzzy. It was winter though."

That was the end of that conversation. The others were a bit baffled. I couldn't blame them. Weird shit happens to us all the time so we were kind of used to it. They weren't.

I gave Leo the task of finding a way to contact Annabeth. She would be the most likely to hear us out instead of shutting us down. She had always listened to my stupid ideas.

"Hold on," I said. Peter looked up. "Do any of you know what _Harry Potter_ is?"

The answer a bunch of 'no's.

"What – the – fuck?" Clarisse said.

"This is a sin." Piper said.

"What's a sin?" Annabeth asked.

Wait. "Annabeth!" I grinned. "These guys don't know what Harry Potter is!"

She gasped. "No!"

"Yes!"

Annabeth spent the next few minutes downloading and sending electronic copies of Harry Potter to us.

When all of the Guardians were settled down reading, we got down to business.

 _"_ _To defeat the Huns_

 _Did they send me daughters_

 _When I asked for sons?_

 _You're the saddest bunch I ever met_

 _But you bet before we're through_

 _Mister I'll make a man out of you."_

In the background, I could hear everyone else telling Annabeth the theory. I couldn't bring myself to pay any attention.

 _"_ _Tranquil as a forest,_

 _But a fire within_

 _Once you find your center_

 _You are sure to win_

 _You're a spineless, pale, pathetic lot,_

 _but you can bet before we're through_

 _Somehow I'll make a man out of you."_

"Percy!" Piper shouted. I blinked at her. "You got distracted. _Focus._ "

I felt the charmspeak wash over me, but I didn't stop it. "Now that Percy is listening, continue, Annabeth."

Annabeth nodded. "Well, your theory does have merit. We can't assume it's correct, we can't assume it's wrong. My gut says you're right, but I'm going to do some more research."

She didn't shoot it down immediately. That meant that the likelihood of us being correct jumped exponentially.

"Right," Leo said, "Contact between us will be difficult. I'm thinking once a month will be doable. Obviously emergencies are the exception. Is that good with you?"

Annabeth nodded. Behind her, the door opened and someone walked in. Annabeth smiled and waved at her friend. "Right. I have to go. Bye!"

The screen turned black.

 **1037 words. Pathetic. I've been working on some future scenes that won't happen until chapter 40 or something. Hope this satisfies you for now,**


End file.
